French and Emirati intelligence agencies hacked the iPhone of Telegram chief and founder Pavel Durov in 2017, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The joint operation, code-named “Purple Music,” was reportedly initiated due to concerns about the Islamic State’s use of Telegram—a private messaging app—for recruitment and planning attacks. This hack occurred years before Durov’s unexpected arrest in Paris over the weekend.
France had been engaged in a “long-term effort” to “compromise Telegram,” according to a former French intelligence official cited by WSJ, though they did not specifically address the hacking of Durov’s phone.
The WSJ report did not clarify whether French President Emmanuel Macron was aware of the hack or if the spies still had access to Durov’s phone. The newspaper also noted that there was no evidence linking the phone hack to Durov’s detention on Saturday.
Politico reported on Tuesday that Macron was an early adopter of Telegram, while French authorities were frustrated with the app’s reluctance to cooperate with their demands.
Durov, 39, was detained at Le Bourget airport near Paris late Saturday on suspicion of 12 offenses related to his alleged failure to curb criminal content on Telegram. He is expected to learn on Wednesday whether he will face charges and remain in custody.
The Russian-born tech entrepreneur left Russia in 2014, claiming he was pressured to share users’ communications from his VKontakte social media platform with Russian security agencies. Despite this, he reportedly traveled to Russia over 50 times between 2015 and 2021, according to leaked FSB data cited by the investigative outlet IStories.
The WSJ also reported that Macron tried to persuade Durov to move Telegram’s headquarters to Paris during a lunch meeting in the French capital in 2018. However, Durov ultimately decided to base Telegram in Dubai.
Durov acquired both French and UAE citizenship in 2021, and that same year, Abu Dhabi invested $75 million in Telegram.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
